When my son was three, we'd often walk to the small park fronting
the neighborhood swimming pool, so Branden could ride the “wee!” (his
toddler word for "slide"). I remember the time we were
joined by an elderly woman. She was chauffeuring her grandson in
a little red wagon, or as Branden called it then, a "ride."

The boy was some months older than Branden, and as the boy crawled
out of his wagon, my son studied him carefully. Briefly the boy eyed
him back, then scrambled over to the bushes, where he picked up pieces
of redwood bark and started throwing them at the plants. All the
while his grandmother was running a polite monologue about how he
should say hi to the nice little boy, how he shouldn't hurt the nice
plants, how none of the people would like it if he kept throwing
the bark--none of which the boy appeared to hear.

After a few minutes, my son walked over to the boy. Without acknowledging
him, Branden also gathered a handful of bark and threw it at the
bushes. It wasn't anything he'd done before. For some
minutes the two just stood there, throwing bark side-by-side, silently
engaged in a rite of communication only they understood. After Grandma
broke up the game, the two played separately, with no further acknowledgement
of each other's presence--for this wasn't a budding friendship. It
was a 3rd house thing.

The 3rd house rules siblings, neighbors, short trips, grammar school,
the acquisition and use of language. But underneath these keywords
lies a profound mystery: our fundamentally human dance of development--of
curiosity, imitation and communication, of adapting to and connecting
with our immediate world. It is not so much a house of "things" as
it is a zone of activity. The way a plant reaches for light, in our
3rd house, we reach for the world with our minds. The essence of
all 3rd house nouns might be collected in a single verb: in this
house we learn.

We learn from our siblings and neighbors; from short trips around
town; from the words that shape our world; from the social and informational
structures we meet at school. The mystery, of course, is that we
do this before anyone tells us to be doing it. It's as instinctive
as a baby's urge to crawl across the carpet. It's as
fundamental as a toddler's delight in made-up words or discoveries
like bark-throwing. We take the cues from our surroundings and grow.
A child follows her siblings, feeling so accomplished when she mimics
their language and behaviors. A child with no brothers or sisters
will find facsimiles. Many times I used to spy from behind the fence,
watching Branden and his daycare pals sputter around the yard. On
the surface they were a flock without pattern, ducklings with no
guiding duck -- yet behind their moves lay a complex 3rd house dance
of curiosity, competition and imitation, of learning about, and gaining
connection to their world.

The 3rd is what's known as a “cadent” house. "Cadent" derives
from the Latin "cadere," meaning to fall away. The cadent
houses are where we fall away from the game plans we initiated in
the cardinal houses and stabilized in the succedents. We must adapt
to outer forces. Our success there depends on flexibility and versatility.
It's wise in these houses to regard all that we meet as a teacher.
In the cadents above the horizon, we're brought to worlds beyond
our familiar narrow streets. In the 9th we encounter foreign concepts,
stretch into new perspectives, discern the bigger meanings behind
events. In the 12th we go beyond the limits of ordinary logic and
touch what's unconscious, incomprehensible, and divine.

By comparison, the cadents below the horizon may seem less interesting
or exotic. Their terrain is certainly more confined. In the 6th we
must adapt to the limits of our bodies (in traditional astrology,
this is the house of sickness); or we must adapt to the workplace
(in modern astrology, this is the house of co-workers and routine
tasks). In the 3rd we must concern ourselves with familiar drudgeries:
phone calls, emails, our daily drives through town. The keyword list
that signaled new adventures for a child evokes for an adult the
boredom of already conquered territory. Grammar school is over. Siblings
and neighbors cease to expand us. We've already mastered many
thousands of words.

This may be why John Frawley writes of the 3rd house: “Of all
the houses of the astrological chart, it is probably the third that
arouses the least interest. In most birth-chart readings it will
be quietly skated over, as the astrologer can usually find nothing
there that warrants closer examination.”1 If an astrologer
does talk about planetary transits through the 3rd or a strong 3rd
house in a solar return, the usual suggestion is that we take a workshop,
improve our communication skills, learn something that might update
our resumes. Or an astrologer might say it's a period when
we'll be busier than usual, in which case, meditation or stress-relieving
practices might be necessary.

The problem with such advice is that it misses the underlying delight
and ongoing purpose of this house. Just as the 6th provides intricate
feedback on the changing requirements of our bodies or our workplace,
through the 3rd we collect a stream of information about the changing
contours of our environment. Nothing-not even our familiar
world-stands still. Lose interest in these changes and your
mind will lose its potency. When you cease to wonder about what's
strange in your day-to-day world, when you lose your willingness
to taste new words and imitate without self-consciousness, when you
forego the thrill of acquiring new masteries, however small, you
will lose the vast richness of this house. The issue here is not
what we learn so much as that we learn. In the 3rd house we're
performing the good work of keeping our minds alive and, in Bob Dylan's
words, “forever young.”

Last Christmas I got a Harry Potter wand. I had fun waving it around,
pushing its buttons and generally pretending to be magical. Then
one day my son announced he had beaten the game. “What game?” “Your
Harry Potter wand.” It was a game? I checked the wand's
package and read every line. There was no mention of a game, no manual
of instructions. And yet, Branden had discovered how to push its
buttons in such a way that accumulated points and defeated imaginary
companions. Though I was a stellar grammar school student and got
A's throughout high school, I got my come-uppance with that
wand. At almost 50 years old, I was suddenly in a classroom where
I was the dunce!

The 3rd house brings opportunities to keep updating ourselves.
Recalling grammar school, on whose model the 3rd house stands, its
education
was largely mandatory. We didn't get to pick and choose our
course of study until the 9th house of higher education. Third house
learning, therefore, is more about what our environment dictates
as important. You don't use the Internet yet? You haven't
learned how to greet your new Slovakian neighbors in their native
tongue? Answer “yes” and you may be shutting the door
on continued 3rd house adaptability and effectiveness.

Perhaps the best approach to 3rd house transits is to take an honest
look and see where you've fallen behind. Although new technologies
like digital cameras and palm pilots may be ruled by the 11th house,
their appearance in your environment becomes a 3rd house matter,
especially as these transfer information. You may not need all the
options on your cell phone, but mastering them may expand your awareness
of the world in ways you cannot predict. Learn how to navigate its
menu and your brain may start thinking in new updated paths.

Though Branden and I share the same house, we live in different
neighborhoods. In his neighborhood, electronic toys are commonplace.
Technological
Aquarius is on his 3rd house cusp. My son doesn't need a book
of instructions. For him this knowledge is in the air, as though
all he had to do was soak it up. Our 3rd house mind is often sponge-like,
absorbing without concern for the particulars of content. This may
be why traditional astrology says the changeable receptive Moon “joys” in
this house. In the busy 3rd, there is much to reflect and receive.
Last week Branden came home quite pleased with a rap he'd made
up with his friends: “I'm down at the street drinking
liz bliz with the chiz niz at the biz ness.” When I asked him
what it meant, he had no idea, a fact which diminished none of his
pleasure.

Branden doesn't watch MTV yet, but on the wings of Hermes,
Snoop Doggy Dog's language still travels through Branden's
neighborhood where it's absorbed. This is a fact parents can
never fully reverse. It's suggested by the very layout of the
horoscope: the 3rd house precedes the 4th of home and family. The
neighborhood is an influence that strolls into the home, rather than
as parents and educators might prefer out from the home and onto
the schoolyard.
Planets and signs in the 3rd house act as a filter on our immediate
environment, predisposing us to meet what they symbolize. When Branden
and I drive through the neighborhood, his streets are filled with
an eclectic Aquarian community: “Mom, I know so many kids on
this block. I think I know someone on every street in our town.” Scorpio--cooler,
more secretive and withdrawn--is on my 3rd house cusp. My streets
are filled with strangers whose doors are always closed. And this
is fine by me: I value my privacy and presume my neighbors do the
same.
Years ago, when I bought my first home in a condominium complex,
I wondered if I could shift my 3rd house experience. After all, along
with taciturn Saturn in Scorpio, I have curious Mercury and charming
Venus in the 3rd. I resolved to become more "neighborly." As
the movers unloaded our belongings from the van, I smiled and waved
to everyone I saw. I was ready to learn their names, welcome them
into my new digs, share cups of sugar, or whatever it is that neighbors
do.

Two weeks later I was avoiding eye contact with my new neighbors-though
I swear I only did this because they avoided eye contact first. Perhaps
I was in a feedback loop, seeing only my own projections. Had my
chart forever doomed me to live in Scorpio neighborhoods? Briefly,
during the week after the earthquake (a Scorpio crisis!) my neighbors
and I learned each other's names and exchanged phone numbers in case
of emergencies. Then we snapped back to mutual invisibility. Over
the five years I lived in that complex, I'd only occasionally give
or get a “hello,” usually from some new face unloading
belongings from a van.

It's the belief of some astrologers that we're doomed
to keep reliving our charts and childhood patterns. Yet more interesting,
I believe, is how we can transform them (my 3rd house Scorpio talking).
In this case, I think it's the very concept of neighborhood
that could use updating. Neighborhood is fundamentally the locus
of our daily gossip and personal news. For children (or those ancients
whose worlds were collected in a single village) the streets around
home were indeed the center of such information. But for someone
in the 21st century with money and a driver's license, this
locality is vast. And in that larger one, I've got plenty of
friendly neighbors with open doors.

Last year one of my neighbors moved from Ashland Oregon to San
Marcos Island in Florida. Thanks to free weekend time on my cell
phone,
we haven't missed a minute of personal news. Through emails
I still know what's going on with my California cohorts. And
when those web-based political action groups invite me to sign electronic
petitions, aren't they much like the guy who used to sit at
a card table outside my neighborhood grocery store? When morning
TV shows like Regis and Kelly or The View broadcast from sets that
look like living rooms, with hosts drinking coffee and discussing
the latest gossip, doesn't my 3rd house neighborhood expand
to include these celebrities too? I spy on the romantic exploits
of The Bachelor, the back-biting of Survivor tribes, and aren't
The Osbournes just another wacky family on my block?

The sign on the 3rd describes not only the streets around our home.
Perhaps more importantly, it describes the type of mental stimulation
we seek in our day-to-day environment. I have 3rd house neighbors
around the world who satisfy my Scorpio needs for depth and intimate
exchange; regularly I invite Oprah and Dr. Phil into my living room
too. The 3rd house tells what types of communication we'll
find interesting--which suggests another means for keeping our 3rd
house experience fresh. When your daily round grows routine or too
overwhelming, examine the neighborhood you've been frequenting.
Where do you get your news? Whose influence are you absorbing? Does
this neighborhood serve the archetypal hunger of your 3rd house planets
and signs?

For years I resisted allowing video and computer games into Branden's
world, hoping he would prefer more benign childhood pastimes like
book-reading, playing Legos, or inventing imaginary games. He didn't
(“Mom, I'm sooooo bored.”). He was also scared
of being left alone. Given the Aquarius on his 3rd, I finally relented
and bought him a Play Station 2. Now he claimed I could go to my
five-hour class at the Buddhist temple and he'd be fine. He
spent that afternoon wandering the streets of (shudder) Vice City's
video game. When I got home, he announced he was the happiest boy
in the world.

If you feel others don't understand you,” writes Donna
Cunningham, “look to the third house to see how well you make
yourself understood.”2 With Sagittarius on the 3rd house cusp,
she suggests, an open, easy-going approach might invite communication
from others; with Scorpio, reserved or biting and sarcastic speech
might discourage easy back-and-forth exchange (not with me of course… but
don't ask my loved ones!). Whatever the style, the 3rd house's
affinity with Mercury, the planet ruling communication, is clear,
which is why modern astrologers claim Mercury is the natural ruler
of this house. Mercury rules all types of messages-letters,
rumours, reports, speeches, and debates-all of which belong
in 3rd house territory.

Carolyn Myss writes that the 3rd house “reveals how you direct
your energy into the world.”3 The sign on its cusp may describe
how you put your ideas into motion and, ultimately, how you wield
your personal power. According to Myss, the challenge of the 3rd
house is to become conscious of your motivations, as one's
every thought, word, action, and deed invoke the laws of magnetic
attraction. What you put out in the 3rd is what you'll receive.
Action and movement are certainly features of this house. But it
might surprise modern astrologers to learn that in traditional
astrology, action-oriented, desire-inspired, power-wielding Mars,
not Mercury,
is assigned rulership of the 3rd.

So which ruler should we use? I confess I'm not scholarly enough
to settle this debate. I only care how astrology can help us live
a richer life, in which case, it seems that monitoring both our
thoughts and deeds can improve our experience of the 3rd.

An actress friend once told me about an improv game called “mantras.” All
the actors in a scene would pick a guiding sentence (or mantra) and
silently chant it as the action unfolded. Someone chanting "I'm
angry" sat down to share a bowl of popcorn with someone else
repeating "I'm special," and the spontaneous results, my
friend told me, were near Pulitzer prize-winning scenes. It quickly
became clear that the mantras determined all the actions in the scene.
I wasn't surprised-for the same is true in life. We act according
to how we think, and what we think about our world, depends a lot
on what we've been doing. Thought and deed, or Mercury and
Mars, are deeply intertwined. The next time you feel others don't
understand you, or worry that your power to achieve your desires
has dimmed, study the field of your 3rd. How are you thinking and
acting in your day-to-day world?

Of course, sometimes it's just nice to get away from it all-to
abandon the noise and distraction of the 3rd for the more spacious
skies of the 9th. Whenever you've got trouble with a particular
house, it helps to stand in its opposite for awhile. Opposite the
3rd is the 9th, ruling faraway places, philosophy and religion. Most
religions encourage us to love our 3rd house neighbors, but they
also advise we avoid some of them too. The 9th can act as a kind
of quality control on negative 3rd house influences, both inner and
outer. Go to a faraway place that's quiet and your mind clears.
Abandon the distractions of your town and you'll achieve
a new perspective.

Some say the 9th house rules higher mind and the 3rd house rules
the lower. This is an accurate enough distinction, but it has an
uncomfortably snooty sound. To my mind, the 3rd and the 9th are
equal in importance. One without the other is incomplete. This
is especially
clear in charts where the Moon's Nodes fall across these houses.
The familiar comforts of the South Node house consumes energy and
diverts us from our path; the North Node house offers an antidote
to this enchantment, but actualizing it isn't easy.

Anna's South Node is in the 3rd house. She's had a busy life, having
achieved success in a variety of careers. She's competent in the
ways of business-computers, accounting, engineering-yet
is utterly mystified about her true life direction. She doesn't
know why, but her busy life has often felt empty, like it was going
nowhere.
She's forever on the road, marking its twists and turns, but has
never seen the full perspective from a map. Like many with the
South Node here, she's missing the 9th house visionary gene.

Eric, on the other hand, feels quite sure of his life direction.
But he's utterly mystified about how to make it happen. His North
Node is in the 3rd. He visualizes his destination clearly; he just
can't find the road that will take him there. He gets overwhelmed
by the kind of 3rd house details that most people take in stride-phone
calls, errands, letter writing, organizing his papers. He's quick
to give his 9th house opinion on all sorts of things. For years
his ambition has been to publish editorials in The New York Times
(why
start at the bottom?), but he's never gotten around to actually
writing one, let alone sending one in.

Clearly Eric needs a little more 3rd house savvy and Anna needs
more soaring in the 9th. For all of us, it's balancing the higher
and lower minds that's key. You can do this by designating
your 3rd house mind as a 9th house sacred space. Nourish it carefully,
cleanse it religiously. Stop the chatter. Discard useless information.
Select your neighborhood carefully. Find one where you can breathe
in plenty of fresh invigorating air. You'll know you've succeeded
when your daily mind is eager for the simple pleasures of reaching
for the world, for learning and listening without judgement.
These are the priceless 3rd house joys.

TWELVE MOONS
WORKSHOP

As
earth's closest celestial ally, the moon has a powerful influence on daily
life, but few are tuned in. If you want to increase your sensitivity to the
lunar rhythm, this is the workshop for you. Every month before the New Moon,
you'll receive a 26-page workbook, personalized to your birth chart and current
location. You'll learn about the astrology particulars-the new moon and
solar ingress, how these influence your chart, along with moon phases, moon
voids, moon signs and house transits. Throughout the cycle, you'll be guided
into an ever more intimate appreciation for the moon's workings in your life

As one of the largest astrology portals WWW.ASTRO.COM offers a lot of free features on the subject. With high-quality horoscope interpretations by the world's leading astrologers Liz Greene, Robert Hand and other authors, many free horoscopes and extensive information on astrology for beginners and professionals, www.astro.com is the first address for astrology on the web.